Facebook post on Thackeray: Girl says she will not visit FB, 9 held for vandalism

MUMBAI/DELHI: One of the girls held for posting comments on Facebook questioning the shutdown in Mumbai for Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray's funeral today said she will never again visit the social networking site while police arrested 9 Shiv Sainiks for vandalising her uncle's clinic.Shaheen Dhada and Renu were arrested for posting comments opposing the Mumbai shutdown. However, they were granted...

Read More..

Cuba's Oil Quest to Continue, Despite Deepwater Disappointment

An unusual high-tech oil-drilling rig that's been at work off the coast of Cuba departed last week, headed for either Africa or Brazil. With it went the island nation's best hope, at least in the short term, for reaping a share of the energy treasure beneath the sea that separates it from its longtime ideological foe.For many Floridians, especially in the Cuban-American community, it was...

Read More..

Clinton Heading to Middle East to Meet With Leaders

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is headed to the Middle East with the hope that she can help bring an end to the escalating violence that has gripped the region for the last week.Clinton is scheduled to arrive in Jerusalem later tonight to meet with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes. Clinton will also meet with...

Read More..

Obama, in Burma speech: ‘We always remained hopeful about you’

RANGOON, Burma — For 15 years, Aung San Suu Kyi waited in her lakeside villa, confined to the small plot of land under house arrest, dreaming of her return to the world. On Monday, the world, or a big piece of it, came calling on h...

Read More..

Sri Lanka orders top judge to attend impeachment case

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's parliament has ordered the country's top judge to attend an impeachment hearing on Friday after rejecting her appeal for more time to prepare a defence.An 11-member parliamentary panel dominated by members of President Mahinda Rajapakse's coalition declined Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake's request for six weeks to respond to 14 charges in the impeachment motion."The...

Read More..

Justice Katju reacts to TOI report, asks Prithviraj Chavan to probe Facebook user's arrest

NEW DELHI: Press Council chief Markandey Katju has asked Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan to inquire in to the wrongful arrest of a woman for protesting against a bandh following Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's death. Reacting to a TOI report that had said that a woman had been arrested for protesting against the shut down in Mumbai on the occasion of Thackeray's death on social networking site...

Read More..

Lonesome George Not the Last of His Kind, After All?

The tide may be turning for the rare subspecies of giant tortoise thought to have gone extinct when its last known member, the beloved Lonesome George, died in June.A new study by Yale University researchers reveals that DNA from George's ancestors lives on—and that more of his kind may still be alive in a remote area of Ecuador's Galápagos Islands. This isn't the first time Chelonoidis...

Read More..

Palestinian Civilian Toll Climbs in Gaza

Israeli aircraft struck crowded areas in the Gaza Strip on Monday, driving up the civilian death toll and in one case devastating several homes belonging to one clan — the fallout from a new tactic in Israel's six-day-old offensive meant to quell Hamas rocket fire on Israel.Escalating its bombing campaign, Israel on Sunday began attacking homes of activists in Hamas, the Islamic...

Read More..

Petraeus scandal puts four-star general lifestyle under scrutiny

Then-defense secretary Robert M. Gates stopped bagging his leaves when he moved into a small Washington military enclave in 2007. His next-door neighbor was Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, who had a chef, a personal valet and — not lost on Gates — troops to tend his property. Gates may have been the civilian leader of the world’s largest military, but...

Read More..

Syria slams "hostile" France as fighting rages

DAMASCUS: Syria on Sunday slammed as "hostile" a French decision to host an ambassador from the opposition National Coalition, as regime forces bombarded southern districts of the capital and clashes raged nationwide.France on Saturday invited the group to send an envoy to Paris, after President Francois Hollande met National Coalition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib."France is acting like...

Read More..